I can’t really justify my curiosity about Hannibal, the NBC series that will act as a prequel to films like Manhunter and The Silence of the Lambs. (It will act as a new prequel, that is, since we’ve already had a feature film prequel called Hannibal Rising.) We’ve seen this story before. We’ve seen it done pretty well. There’s no real reason to have it told again, now, other than the fact that this sort of thing is popular on TV. And yet I’m curious to see what comes of it, and given that I’m probably not the only one, that curiosity is likely exactly why NBC is game to order the series.

We know that Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies) is writing and producing the show, which skipped the pilot stage and went straight to a thirteen-episode order. There is no casting for Hannibal ‘the Cannibal’ Lecter at this point, but now the show has cast Hugh Dancy as Will Graham, the FBI profiler who was played by William Peterson in Manhunter and Ed Norton in Red Dragon, the other film based on the book that spawned Manhunter. Read More »

Please Recommend /Film on Facebook

We still don’t know who will play the TV incarnation of Hannibal Lecter, but we do know that he won’t even have to deal with the traditional pilot stage that is part of a new television show’s road to airtime. NBC has given a thirteen-episode direct to series order to Hannibal, the show pitched by Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies) based on the character created by Thomas Harris and made famous thanks to Anthony Hopkins’ Oscar-winning performance in The Silence of the Lambs. Skipping the pilot stage was mentioned as a possibility when the show landed at NBC; evidently the network brass really liked Fuller’s ideas. Read More »